Merry Christmas Everyone!
The Holidays are great fun, and I think that they are upon us now. We’ve sold out of everything except for Widdy darts. If you’ve placed an order, it’s on a truck right now if it hasn’t landed yet.
There were some requests for Widdy Wood Boards that I couldn’t fill because we ran out of boards in stock. You’ve received a refund. Now, here is some news you can use . . .
Widdy Has Stopped Making Wood Boards
The company that supplies them with the wood blanks has gone out of business. So, Widdy won’t be making any new wood boards in the near future. Perhaps they’ll return to it if they find a new supplier. But for right now, they aren’t making any new wood boards.
If you can find a wooden Widdy board at a reasonable cost elsewhere, grab it now. After Darto stopped making darts, the people who had a supply of them upped the prices. Now, on eBay I can find Darto darts with colored flights at prices that are double what they were. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens with Widdy wood boards as well.
Happy 4th of July !!
Today, we celebrate Independence Day here in the States. For many of us that means picnics and parades, ballgames and fireworks. No matter what you do on the 4th, please do it safely.
While I’m at the fireworks show tonight, I’ll be remembering why we have fireworks and festivities today. Our founding fathers got together and managed to finalize the Declaration of Independence on (or around) the 4th of July. 56 people, from the thirteen states signed the document, including John Hancock (he of the oversized signature).
Even though the United States of America wasn’t exactly safe and secure (the Revolutionary War raged for years after the signing), they were born – at the potential cost of the ”Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” of the signees.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is in the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.
Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the Present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let the Facts be submitted to a candid World.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People; unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.
He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.
He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislature.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond the Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule in these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Powers to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Signed by ORDER and
in BEHALF OF THE CONGRESS
JOHN HANCOCK,
PRESIDENT.
ATTEST.
CHARLES THOMSON,
SECRETARY.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED BY JOHN DUNLAP.
Dartball
First let me say, again, that I love getting actual letters in the mail. The latest came from Ray H. of Grandview Missouri. He writes that he “would like to know if you have any knowledge of a game called Dart Ball. It was played on a 4×8 plywood with a paper playing field like a baseball diamond.”
Well Ray, yes I have heard of Dartball, and here’s some background on the game . . .
Origin:
Life magazine ran a story in 1941 the featured dartball, so the game has been around for quite some time. Well, actually the Mon Yough Church Dartball League has been active since 1928. At least one report puts the origin of the first dartball styled dartboard back as far as 1923 when the Apex company began offering them for sale.
Life Magazine noted that Kansas City was a “stronghold” of the sport. Other strongeholds were Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Today you can find Dartball alive and well in other areas, including Wisconson, Georgia and Kentucky.
The Board:
The playing surface is now 4×4, and consists of 1/4″ of fiberboard, backed by a 1/2″ of plywood for added stability. When put into place, the board is not completely vertical as most dartboards are. Instead, the board is tilted backwards, making it easier to accept a dart that is in a declining flight path. The bottom of the board is 8 inches closer to the shooter than the top of the board. The height of the board is set by one of the manufacturers by placing the bottom of the board at 24 inches from the floor.
Gameplay:
The game strongly mimics traditional baseball. There are two teams of 9 players competing. Each player’s turn at the throw line mimics a batter in baseball. They can throw until they strike out, are walked, get a hit, or hit into an out. Umpires are used to call the game. Sometimes 2 Umpires per side are used (an Umpire of Darts and an Umpire of Plays are used in the Spencerville PA Dartball League).
The darts used in the game are Apex # 2 and come in at a whopping 7 1/4 inches long. They come in both three feather and four feather flight configurations. By comparison, a standard Widdy dart is 5 3/4 inches long.
The distance of the throw line seems to differ from league to league, but 20 to 25 feet seems to be the norm. Also, players are sometimes restricted to a particular throwing motion. For instance, in Wisconson, players must “pitch” underhanded.
Churchgroups – not Taverns:
There are two chapters dedicated to Dartball in Dan Peek’s book “To The Point, the Story of Darts in America”. In one of them, it is reported that the president of Apex recollects that the sport of Dartball was spread across the country “by Johnny Appleseed types, such as Lutheran ministers who would bring their dartboards and their bibles as they moved from one congregation to the next.”
That quote may bear more than a bit of truth. In looking at the greater Dartball community, many of the active leagues are Church Leagues. And, for whatever it’s worth, Monday Night seems to be Dartball Night across the country.
Although the Washington PA dartball league isn’t a church league, they do have an upcoming movie based on their pastime, and a trailer is available for viewing at their website:
http://www.dartballthemovie.com/dartball_08.html
Parts and Labor:
If you’re interested in starting to play dartball, you’ll need a dartball board, apex #2 darts, a stand, and a lighting system.
The boards are available online, or can be manufactured. In an interview for “To the Point, the Story of Darts in America”, Robert Glass from Apex stated that “Every month or so we get a call from somewhere in the country from someone asking for materials. They are usually vague about what they want them for, but it’s not hard to guess that they are trying to make a Dartball board. We don’t mind at all, but everyone thinks they will be infringing on our patent. We don’t care about that, we’ll be glad to help anyone with materials or instructions on how to make a Dartball board at no charge, with no problems.”
The darts are available from Apex retailers. The stands and lighting systems seem to be made by each Dartball group. I haven’t been able to find any commercially available.
Resources:
Dartball ScoreSheets
http://www.dartballusa.com/
http://www.widartball.com/
Greetings from South Africa
Sometimes, the world becomes a small place. I received this letter from South Africa recently, and will be sending something out to Mr. Everton shortly.
“Dear Sir,
I read with interest about the American Style of darts on the Wikipedia w-site.
I play with English tungsten steel tip darts, on a general or social basis at present, no clubs in our area.
It was therefor a suprise to find out about your USA darts style with wooden darts! and feather flights. and the board is different too.
Your players must be good on doubles, also with the triples ring next to it.
I would imagine they would be good on doubles on the standard English board too.
I would like to enquire as to where I could get an information brouchure with pictures of your particular dartboards please.
Also, any photo-copies of darts badges would be appreciated. I collect the plastic/polyester type of dart flights which include company/promotional and brewery related and sports, etc, dart flight prints – when I can get them as they are not generally sold in sports shops here. ”
He enclosed a couple of coasters promoting the local bottle store, “Robby’s Drinkwinkel Bottle Store”. I don’t have any brochures to send, but if you do, let me know (webmaster AT american style darts [one big word] dot com). I’ll be working up somethings and sending out a bit of a care package focused on American darts.
He included some links to South African darts sites:
Darts SA
Johannesburg Darts League
Troy Style Dartboards
I received this letter in July from S. Martin of upstate New York. With a website, generally you receive a ton of emails, and no one ever puts pen to paper and sends off something through the post. So, it was definitely fun to receive an actual letter.
He writes:
“Dear Sirs,
I’m from Albany NY originally. When I was a teenager, my friend and I used to play darts on an American dart baord. The board was shaped in a diamond, had a red background and the numbers were green or blue and white with a thin piece of wire separating them. They had a red center cork and an outside cork also.
They came in a couple of thicknesses 1″, 1 1/2″ & 2″. A guy in Waterford used to make them. Waterford is very close to Albany.
I would like to start playing again and I have searched on the internet with no success in finding these boards. This man in Waterford can’t be the only person that made these boards.
i you know can you give me an idea where I can get a new board like this? Also the wooden darts by Apex that we used on them.
Thanks”
I wasn’t sure about the second cork concept, but the diagonal/red board reminded me right away of something I had seen on George’s baseball darts website called a “Troy” board. You can see one towards the bottom of this page. There’s also a write-up at Bullseye that you can read here.
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